i have so many people come and ask me why anime is so expensive.i thought some of you questioned this also so i decided to do some research to come up with an answer.
here is my long long answer,please try to read it all.

There are actually two schools on this one. There are those fans who think that we should be grateful to be able to obtain anime without having to pay import prices, and then there are fans that believe that anime in the US is largely too expensive. By ratio, anime in the US is roughly the same price it is in Japan. We may find $30 expensive for a single anime VHS tape here in the US, but in Japan, a copy of Ghost in the Shell on VHS, new, can cost as much as $150 depending on the version you buy! Feature length anime movies on VHS in Japan rarely cost less than $50. A copy of the Utena movie on VHS or DVD costs roughly $88 in Japan, and a copy of the Nadesico movie on LD or VHS in Japan costs roughly $100! When AnimeNation charges $29.95 for an import anime soundtrack CD or J-pop CD, it`s because you`d pay roughly $25 or more for that same CD if you were to fly to Japan yourself and buy it in any Japanese record store. From one perspective, it`s a lot nicer to be able to buy Blue Submarine No. 6 episodes on DVD in the US for $20 per 30 minute disc as opposed to the Japanese retail of roughly $50 each per 30 minute DVD. The upcoming American DVD edition of Tenamonya Voyagers will contain all four episodes on a single DVD for $30. At any retail store in Japan, those four episodes are available on four separate DVDs that cost roughly $60 each!

Anime is expensive in the US because translating companies have to cover the costs of licensing shows, then translating packaging, marketing and distributing them. To lower production costs, companies have to produce in massive bulk quantities, which anime simply can`t do. To us anime fans, anime may seem as though it`s a gigantic powerhouse in the US now, but a single American mainstream studio release like Mission: Impossible 2 can generate more revenue by itself than the entire American anime industry can earn in a year. Anime simply doesn`t have the big financial backing or mass market necessary to allow for lower prices.

On the other hand, I personally do believe that it is reasonable to question the expense of anime in the US. Without mentioning names, there seems to be an odd discrepancy between US anime distributors. Slayers and Irresponsible Captain Tylor, for example, can sell for $20 with four subtitled or dubbed episodes while Evangelion retails at $30 for two subtitled episodes. Early tapes of Brain Powered contain two episodes and retail for $25 each while later volumes of the same series contain seven episodes for only $5 more. Japanese contracts may have something to do with this. I don`t know enough about the American industry to say that licensing contracts don`t mandate minimum retail prices. There are many anime titles that have not yet appeared on DVD in the US yet because the American licensee may be contractually obligated to with-hold an American DVD version until the title is released on DVD in Japan first to guard against video piracy and Japanese people importing cheaper American copies rather than buying Japanese versions. American anime companies may also be obligated to pay royalties or continuing licensing fees on titles. At the same time, though, it does seem odd that Anime Village titles cost the same as other company`s titles when Anime Village/Bandai releases titles Bandai already owns the distribution rights to. The same applies to Viz`s retail prices for series like Ranma and Maison Ikkoku, both of which are titles owned by Shogakukan Publishing, Viz`s parent company.

-Bigshot Jordan-

see you space cowboys.

__________________
"Everything past and future is vivid. Only the present is fuzzy."
-Yoshitaka Amano

Well, last year in school we compared the living prices of different places using the price of a big mac. And Japan was the second most expensive place in the list of place we compared, only followed by sweden i think.

yeah,things are expensive down in the land of the rising sun.movie tickets cost at least 14.50,14.50!!!atleast!!!
if you ever see a movie in japan(i will) you will probably really want to see it really bad if you want to see it in a theater.

see you space cowboys.

[Edited by BigShot Jordan on 02-12-2000 at 04:40 PM]

__________________
"Everything past and future is vivid. Only the present is fuzzy."
-Yoshitaka Amano

Actually, piracy is practically non-existent in Japan. Reason being, there are HUGE fines for being caught selling pirated items (it is in the government's interest to ensure the big corporations are kept happy and healthy...happy companies, hapy japanese economy)...and it's a lot easier to crack down on, for instance, pirate PSX games, within the country where the parent company is based.

Wow, $14.50 for a movie ticket. I only pay $5.00 for mine...I always found the dvds reasonably priced. I think it depends on where you buy them. Best Buy has all the $30 dvds for $20, and you can find them ebay, amazon even cheaper. Case Closed dvds cost $20 already(Except for the new ones) but you only get 3 eps a disc. But at wal mart they are $13.87.

__________________Eddiefb3

"With a Keen Eye for Details Only
One Truth Prevails!"
Jimmy Kudo

"When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."
Sherlock Holmes